The Effects of Deception
by NinjaofElm
Summary: This is a tale of a ninja: Akira and her cousin, Kat, two girls thrown into an exciting and deadly life that may uncover more secrets then they or the world can handle. Rated M: For descriptive, intense violence, and cursing.
1. Chapter 1: The Start of Everything

Chapter ONE:

Do you know what it's like to have everything brushed away into oblivion, to have nothing but yourself aware your life is crumbling and unaware if you'll have the strength of heart to manage with it. I was in that state of mind, nothing left but the whiteness of absence of all that I loved within my life. I've been there more than once, just because of one _simple_ decision.

I decided I wanted to be a ninja of the hidden leaf village.

Looking back on everything I have no idea how the fascination began with the ninja I saw. My father was a ninja, as was my brother, my mother was a part of the science division but also was a Chunin. I guess it was simply in my veins.

Or maybe it was the way ninja always stood; tall, backs straight, chin up, like they had seen the hells and heavens of Earth and had lived more than anyone else could live.

Either way, they grew to enchant me, made me build myself up into a successful ninja before I even stepped foot into the ninja academy. Which, lead me to come to the immediate realization that the life of a ninja was difficult and required one to be aggressively bound to the idea of becoming that ninja they dreamed of.

I was lucky, I had quite the imagination and I was quite the stubborn little girl.

The ninja Academy was one of the rougher portions of my life and my outspoken nature did not assist that endeavor. The teachers viewed me as insolent and annoying, I consistently argued with principles and got a C average even though I was clearly better than that, especially with the upper hand of living with two Jonin and a Chunin.

The kids hated my hair, they would pull on it, sometimes the girls would try to cut pieces off when I wasn't paying attention, especially one girl named Ino, she hated my hair. It was an unusual shade of dark red, very like the color of condensed blood, a dark sinister red that brought to much attention. For the first few days, like every day I kept my hair down, a curling, tangled, thick mane of blood red hair that I was intensely proud of, but as I began to be harassed I tied it up, I rolled over, as I always did when it came to anything regarding my appearance.

Yet besides the constant harassment about my hair, besides the kids forcing me to the back of the class, I always went hope happy, I had a family to return to, a father, a mother, a brother that loved me.

They didn't care that I didn't have the best grades, they encouraged hiding my ability, they encouraged a trick up my sleeve. They loved my outspoken side, they were proud I spoke my mind, I never told them about the bullying.

My father taught me when I began showing serious potential in my training with chakra control and my chakra nature how to forge a weapon, and so bloomed my love for creation. It was a perfect way to get out my anger, to hammer a blade into the perfect shape, the perfect way to think as I sharpened a blade for hours on end. It was a fantastic passion that my father soon addressed with Kenjutsu, the study of sword usage.

My mother helped me develop an incredibly sharp intellect, she taught me games that involved strategizing, she taught me phycology and how to analyze everything, and I mean _everything_.

My brother taught me to believe in myself, to keep moving forward to be strong in morale character and to not stand for harassment of any sort, but most of all to fight with my words before I was forced to fight with my hands.

When I finally stood up to any of them, however, it took me two years, I was seven, and when Ino Yamanaka came up behind me as she left class she grabbed a little bit of my pony tail and yanked as hard as she could. I turned around slowly at the sound of her laughing and delivered one, solid, silencing, sentence.

"Amazing how ugly your personality is."

She barked at me angry words screaming I was weird and I'd never find love, stupid things that she deemed important, insecurities she pinned on me. I nodded, and listened and when she was done, I was about to say something breathtakingly heroic along the lines of 'at least I know who I am' or 'I'm sorry but your problems will never be mine. I hope you can get over your own insecurities,' but at that very moment, a small white puppy rushed between my legs and bit Ino Yamanaka on the ankle.

Akamaru. Ino ran out of the room kicking the dog off, screaming about how it needed to be trained and stormed out of the room. That's when I met Kiba Inuzaka, my best friend.

He smelled awful about 90% of the time, but he did live with several dogs and he stood up for me when no one would so it hardly mattered to me. He was the best friend I had ever encountered, until I started to meet others, mainly Choji, a kind, great soul. He was so friendly and compassionate to any woes I might have that I found myself buying his chips one a week, every week. We were all good friends, but life changed.

At ten years of age, my brother, a negotiator within the village, a Jonin, broke of an unnamed stress and left right after I gave him the first sword my father had ever complimented. A sword fit for a knight, perfectly crafted. I gave him a lecture about keeping it in shape. I remember halfway through the conversation how he hugged me for no apparent reason, and I was left wondering what was wrong.

My family life became troubled after that as my parents started leaving frequently to meet with my aunt, uncle and cousin, a group I couldn't meet due to my ninja lifestyle. They grew more and more tense with every trip until, a week before the final exam to become a Genin, my family left me alone and said goodbyes fit for dying last words.

My father told me I would change the world, told me I would be a legend. My mother told me I would be too compassionate for my own good, and that I should never fall in love, it was too much trouble. They said it with a smile, with a joke, with a laugh, but there eyes were frowns with a depth of sadness I could not fathom, but still was so strong it created a hard rock that rested in the bottom of my stomach, worry. They left, and I was alone: scared and stressed preparing for an exam that would determine my life as a ninja.

I was so alone.


	2. Chapter 2: The Night of Horror

Chapter TWO:

She didn't have to see to hear it. The village was under attack, screams soared through the air and hit against her ear drum like every nightmare she had, had was at her door knocking….

Katarina Suzume lived within a small town in the Land of Mist. The town was peaceful, simplistic, full of farmers and traders, no one of notoriety, with a solid force of about ten ninja patrolling the small town for trouble.

Katarina was a unique child, blind, some would guess by her solid grey eyes, some mistook her for a member of the Hyuga clan, but it was a very rare occurrence due to the distance between such a fabled family and the little town.

Her life was best explained, as cozy with a small looming threat of failing bonds.

See, Katarina did well within the village. She even went out to travel to the village hidden in the mist to go to school to become ninja, thanks to her father's similar occupation and her mother's encouragement. She developed quickly learned skills in water and earth to create ice. She excelled as a ninja gaining her Genin badge of honor by the time she was eleven; however there was one problem in her calm life.

Her older brother.

His heart was black with the taint of jealousy that developed into an absolute abhorrence; for there was a secret to his sister that he wished to have as his own, a secret of power.

His sister was capable of the most advanced ocular jutsu in the world; The Byakugan and the Sharingan, at the same time. It was thought to be an impossibility, and due to the dangerous potential it held was kept secret, but her brother knew and wished for the power with such a ferocious hunger that he stumbled to the edge of sanity and jumped.

She was twelve when he finally took that last permanent step. It had been a peaceful day, men and women meandering home passing each other and waving at familiar faces. Katarina watched the sea of faces happily, a books scratchy pages underneath her fingers waiting for her eager eyes. It was peaceful, the perfect moment to get lost, until she heard the heavy footfall of her brother.

At first she thought it might be her uncle who had come to visit with her aunt, but her uncle would never stomp anywhere. On top of that her uncle and aunt were already inside drinking with her parents.

"Kat," he stated firmly confirming her suspicions before looking, "Get your nose out of that book, don't you have any missions to do," he sneered.

His hands were shaking, his brown hair plastered to his forehead with the strong adhesive of sweat, and one of his arms had a deep gash, and it was as though he had come back from a difficult mission and never tried to seek medical aid.

"Whoa, what happened to you," she asked aghast.

He looked at her, glaring, grey eyes staring into hers with a scream of hate, "Why would you care?!"

Katarina far from flinched at his spiteful words, accustomed to such outbursts and aware of his stubborn inability to open up to her she simply glanced back at her book, "Mom can stitch you up inside."

Her brother huffed and stomped past her into the house.

Katarina stayed, reading the latest novel she had picked up by an author from the Leaf village, Jiraiya, _The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi_. As the sunset and the comfortable warmth of the day turned into the slight nip of cold from night she found herself nodding into sleep over the scribbled letters of a character that had no character flaws. She yawned and slowly leaned her head against the wall of her home drifting into a quiet stream of thoughts and then a dream.

"GET HER INSIDE!"

Rough hands grabbed Katarina about the arms as she was dragged back. She screamed out a protest of confusion as the door to her home was thrown open and she was pushed inside by her father who turned around and with frightened dark eyes grabbed a hold of her shoulders and gave her a stern expression. His breath was coming in ragged, aggressive bursts that Katarina couldn't understand what had happened to cause them.

"Stay in here, you'll be safe in here, just stay," he said.

He ran outside slamming the door behind him. Yet not before Katarina saw the unmistakable, unsettling sight of a building covered in orange flames.

The village was under attack, screams soared through the air and hit against her ear drum like every nightmare she had, had was at her door knocking….

She couldn't stand it, as a ninja, as a daughter she had to see what she could do, she looked to the window, she had to get out, but the sight stopped her.

All of it, everything was burning and in front of their house, in the middle of the road was her brother, standing, with a few men behind him all of them facing against her parents. She didn't believe it, she couldn't believe it. He drew his weapon, and she saw as plain as the blood on that shinning metal of his weapon that her brother was going to attack.

She burst through the door without a second thought, but as she crashed onto their porch her aunt ran to grab her about the waist and stop her progression. She was forced to watch, as she was kept safe, as her brother slaughtered both of her parents.

It was so quick and clean it was disgusting. Her mother, standing, innocent, not even a fighter but ready to fight, she stood hands ready, Byakugan activated ready to strike, but Katarina could almost feel the way her mother's lower lip would tremble in fright, in fear, in sadness. Her father was shaken as well, keen Sharingan eyes alight in the flame reminiscent of a demon, yet he was just a man forced to face his own son, his fists were shaking so heavily she could see it.

Yet her brother came at them, with a bloody sword and a smile.

She couldn't even understand what she saw the images pinned themselves to her long term memory, yet were still forever cryptic in the chaos, disbelief and panic of the night.

Her father, who was standing in the way of her mother, dodged his first attack, and her mother was not quick enough to do the same. She was just a villager.

The blade hit her in the stomach, her own son staring her in the eyes as he killed her and threw her to the ground like a toy he was exhausted of. Her body slammed into the other side of the road, and she spun across the stone and stayed still face downwards, hair spread about her like a cloak.

Katarina couldn't think straight couldn't believe, couldn't understand.

His men advanced on her father.

Katarina tried to let out a yell, tried to stop it from happening. But her voice didn't make it anywhere near audible for the situation. Her aunt covered her mouth. Her fingers sweaty, her breathing ragged against her side.

Her uncle burst into the fight, a Jonin, just like her father. Her brother dealt with all of them, with just one sword and two men. He sliced his own father's throat into a bloody smile and Katarina's uncle screamed to her aunt. Yet Kat watched as her father fell to his knees facing her and then fell to the ground, face down on the cool stone.

"Take her! Take her to Konoha, we can't lose her!"

Katarina's aunt hesitated a single moment, just enough time for Katarina to free herself with an aggressive thrust out of her aunt's arms. However, as her aunt reached for her wrist her brother spotted her, blood splattered across his face and a wide smile across his features.

"Where are you going?"

Katarina yelled she threw herself toward her brother armed only with the deepest hate she could produce. She ran into the street but just as her brother with a greedy smile grinned and began to raise his blade her aunt leaped in the way taking a heavy sword wound across her belly.

Her uncle burst into the group throwing his wife back to defend her from the man.

"Take her," he screamed again, "I'll hold them back!"

Katarina watched the fire behind her brother dance, the craziness alight in his eyes, glanced at her parent's bodies, unable to understand they were dead, they couldn't be. Just a few hours ago…Yet she felt a firm grip on her wrist and was tugged away through the fire and the flames as her uncle stood alone holding back a foe that should never have existed.

It was her brother, her brother, her brother.

She didn't have to see to hear it. The village was under attack, screams soared through the air and hit against her ear drum like every nightmare she had, had was at her door knocking….those knocks would never go away, she'd open the door and see her father's last red smile, and see her mother tossed aside and watch her own brother's violent eyes with a horror she had never known she was capable of.


	3. Chapter 3: Last Words

Chapter 3:

Three aggressive knocks shattered the night's still. I froze, halfway to my room, halfway up the stairs and looked back to the front door trying to spot someone through the stain glass window.

"Help," someone cried, then a few more knocks aggressive, and angry.

I rushed back down the stairs. A thousand thoughts interrupted my flow of stress. There were only nine hours until my final exam at the ninja academy, and now someone was knocking on my door. Maybe it was Choji and he was having a midnight craving, no his mom would help him. Maybe it was Kiba, maybe his mom was being awful. She was a little bit hard to endure sometimes.

I opened the door preparing myself for kids who would giggle and run away. Instead, a spot light was cast from my home on a young girl with dark hair, pure grey eyes and a Land of Mist headband.

She was carrying my mother.

Both looked exhausted, my mother had scrapes all over her face and was leaning cripplingly on the foreign girl, casting heavy exhausted breaths. There was the sound of a little splat, something hitting the ground, and I glanced down to see blood, bright red on my doormat.

"Come in," I said stepping aside.

The girl didn't say anything, she sat down opposite to the couch I put my mother on and covered her mouth, she was quiet, thinking, and on the verge of tears. Something awful had happened, but I could care less. My mother was injured, a full blown slash across her stomach, her skin was pale with blood loss, yet her eyes were open watching me.

"Don't leave Akira, I need to tell you something."

I moved to her side still protesting, "Mom, I have to, there's bandages up in my room I can patch you up and then call a proper medical ninja. It'll be okay," I said my trembling fingers brushing my mother's hair away from her sweaty forehead.

I was terrified, I had never seen an injury before, I was almost certain it didn't matter, that my mom would be fine. Yet my rational side knew, it knew her time was up, that she had been bleeding for a while, that nothing was keeping her alive but pure will force.

She reached for my hand, her bright blue eyes, and her soft smile all reaching towards me. It was a terrible reminder of every moment that I had loved the woman before me, that she was a part of me that was going to be ripped away if I didn't do anything, but she was stopping me. She grabbed my hand and placed it over her heart.

"Akira, this girl is your cousin."

She suddenly coughed a burst of air that ended in blood dribbling down her chin. There was internal damage. Why hadn't she gone to the hospital first?!

"Who cares mom, we can talk about it later," I argued, "Please I'll get bandages, just give me a second!"

"No," she said firmly, her hand held mine like a vice, "Take care of her, it's just you two now, survive, make me proud."

"Mom," I said returning her grip, "These are dying words. You're going to live, don't worry."

"Honey. I'm not and there are things you must know. Your cousin and you, you're very special, you need to know that-"

She coughed again, her heart rate was picking up, she was struggling against death and it was coming, quickly. More blood oozed out of her stomach wound dripping onto the couch cousins. It was a foreboding stain of black against the green fabric.

"I love you, I love you so much," she said with tears in her eyes, "Your brother too. Tell him that."

She closed her eyes.

"Mom," I screamed.

Her breath slowed, her heart stopped, her features… she was still _smiling_.

"Mom please! Wake up! You'll be fine! Mom!"

At that moment, my cousin got off the chair and went to the door, she screamed out for help as I ran my fingers through my mother's hair. Everything about her was lifeless. She was gone. She was dead. I tried to find some small fragment of life in her relaxed features. She was gone. She was dead.

Everything for the rest of that night was a blur, a few ninja came demanding answers starring at the foreign ninja with such ire and mistrust it was astoundingly inappropriate. I told them all that I knew, but when they turned to my cousin for more answers she couldn't speak. She opened her mouth and shook her head.

"Did she do it," one of the ninja finally asked.

"Of course she didn't! Get out of here if you're going to throw around those accusations!"

The ninja were extremely polite after that, they retrieved my mother's body and asked that I bring my 'sister' to a mental check-up the next day. I didn't care. I slammed the door on them as soon as I could, flipped over the couch cushions with my mother's blood and sat in the chair next to my cousin starring at the coffee table willing myself to truly accept what was happening.

"You're dad," she started.

"I know. What's your name?"

"Kat," she responded.

I nodded, "Well Kat let's just…sit here…awhile," I managed swallowing a lump in my throat.

"Yeah."

We both began crying, silently, a few minutes later. Awake and thinking, we didn't move until morning, when I got up for the ninja academy final for only one reason: We had to have money, somehow.

"You can come with me," I said quietly.

It was a bluff I hardly knew if it was allowed, but I felt so unsure of leaving her alone in emotional decay that I couldn't help but offer.

Kat shook her head, "I'll stay here for a while."

I nodded, it's what I would have wanted to do, "Well…feel free to explore, if you need anything I'm in the building with the fire symbol on it, in the levels on the ground. I'll be back soon."


	4. Chapter 4: Grief and Intruders

Chapter FOUR:

When someone dies and you just have to keep moving, it's hard. The day is numb, without color, without friends, you avoid everything. It's awful. You think of all you could have said, what you could have done and you're left blaming yourself and imagining it differently. You blame yourself, over and over.

The only problem is grief out of nowhere is seldom overlooked by good friends, and I swear Kiba could smell it on me before I even entered the room for the ninja academy exam. He asked me what was wrong, but I just couldn't answer. How do you tell someone your parents are dead? It caught in my throat with the realization that if I expelled such words I would surely break in the middle of a classroom where everyone wanted to see me crumble.

I shook my head and didn't speak to Kiba all day, though he tried to cheer me up, he didn't give up either, the more he talked to me however the closer I got to tears. Choji didn't help either it was a combined effort to make me laugh that ended in my head nestled on the wooden pillow of my desk and my arms wrapped about me to keep others out.

Iruka sensei told us that the test would be on clones and to return to a back room to take our test when our names were called in alphabetical order. Akira Leona. I would be near the end, damn it. I needed to get back to Kat and she if she was okay. Luckily Kiba would get out before me and maybe then, maybe then I could avoid crying in front of him.

"Can I go to your house after school?"

I looked up, met his dark eyes. Kat was already distraught she didn't need more people and frankly neither did I. I glanced at Choji and he nodded. They both wanted to come over.

"No," I said shaking my head, "I-no."

"Well I'm coming over anyways," Kiba said with a triumphant voice.

He was too aggressive about these things, someday he would get in over his head with his tough talk, and that might be today when my ninja cousin saw him breaking and entering before I was home. I was too tired to deal with any of it. I didn't say a word and just hoped he forgot about me.

He was called and never came back. I expected that.

The classroom was practically empty except for a few faces, Shikamari or whatever, was asleep on his desk, his hair sticking up into the air like a torn dark brown flag. I spent a solid three minutes bounding back between my parents and how his hair stayed up to avoid the thought of…well…my parents. Naruto was riled up staring out the window with some determined expression. Then there was Sasuke calm as ever in the front row. He probably knew what it was like to lose a parent in front of him, if the rumors were true. I didn't want to bug him either way, he just wasn't the type of guy that would be a positive influence in grief from what I had seen.

Finally they called my name. It was with weary steps I walked a little closer to home.

It had been a quiet sad afternoon for Katarina. To any onlooker she was lost. She walked about the house, sometimes crashing to the floor with loud sobs of anguish, sometimes bursting with rage, sometimes trying to avoid it all by reading.

She found Akira, in her room, had a book. The same book she had been reading, and at the moment she saw its scribbled cover she had the childish belief that finishing the book would help her.

However she hadn't even opened the book when she heard someone throw the door open downstairs.

"Akumaru, do you smell that," a male voice asked.

Katarina immediately assumed it was an intruder, maybe, she leaped, one of her brother's own men come to finish the job. She grabbed a kunai out of the pouch on her hip, still a Genin at heart.

"Hey, is someone in here?"

Katarina exited Akira's room and began sneaking towards the stairs, hiding behind the shadows of the railings, easing down.

"If there's an intruder we'll rip you to shreds, got it," the boy yelled.

Katarina saw him, walking through the house going down the hallway on the bottom floor away from the main door and the stairs. Katarina took a breath, and attacked. She ran down the hall, and leaped tackling the intruder to the floor and holding a kunai to his throat.

"HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!"

"NO, HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE," the boy yelled.

I rushed inside to see Kat, kunai placed on Kiba's throat, pinned to the ground. I cleared my throat and both of their heads snapped to my eyes.

"Is he supposed to be in here," Kat asked her face flushed, her kunai held with such firm unwavering strength it was surprising.

"Akira, who the hell is this," Kiba asked angrily.

Akumaru was biting the edge of Kat's shoe nibbling on it like it would someday cripple her.

"Will you two get off of each other?!"

Kat stood up crossing her arms and waiting for an explanation. Kiba stayed on the ground pointing at her.

"She's crazy!"

"She's right," I stated, "You aren't supposed to be in here Kiba."

Kat was silent, but her eyes shown with a small triumph, a small dash of happiness that ultimately escaped in seconds. We were far from able to revel in such small victories.

"Is this what's been making you upset," Kiba asked.

I looked at Kat, an understanding between us that Kiba could never fathom was already there.

"Kiba," I sighed, "It's a really long story."

"I'm listening."

Good friends, you hate them and you love them all at once, but it sucks when they know you're trying to get out of something they want to hear.

A silence spread through the room like a sickness as I explained as much as I could without choking on my own words. There was a hollow hole in my heart that seemed to open a bit wider every time I told the story, and now I had just taken another spoonful to worsen the sadness.

"Dead," he repeated.

I nodded.

"When did it…"

"Yesterday. Kat's my cousin."

"Take care of her, did your parents..," Kiba glanced at Kat, and she looked at the ground.

"I need to take her to a mental checkup and you should really go home, so let's just leave the house and pretend this never happened, okay?"

"I'm not leaving you alone. Right Akumaru?"

Akumaru let out a squeak of a bark.

I looked at Kat and she shrugged, "I don't care," she whispered.

I guess it worked. Kiba was going to a mental checkup…maybe we could get a two for one deal.


	5. Chapter 5: A Check-Up

Chapter FIVE:

The room was white, the scan of her mental activity showed no abnormalities, but still Kiba and I were led into a separate room by a young nurse who had been watching all the signs of 'practically normal' with a grim face of 'She's going to die in two months.'

Not that she was of course! Damn, but the trouble I would have avoided if she had. Not that I wanted that, but, well, anyways!

The nurse sat us down in two chairs, like it would make a serious difference if we stood or sat.

"She shows signs of incredible stress, and the way she isn't speaking about it," the young nurse sighed dramatically, "She may already be unstable mentally. I would give up hope that she'll ever be normal again."

Kiba glanced at me and saw my glare; it wasn't that I knew Katarina's story, I didn't. I just did not enjoy her company.

She had no right, of course Katarina would never be the same again she had watched at least one person die in front of her, maybe more. Her parents were gone, hell if they had performed a mental check on me they would have found stress and insanity symptoms as well.

'Oh look, you just suffered something traumatic, well better to just treat you like you're gone up there.' Yes, totally reasonable, she was just a sad girl who felt alone, but this nurse had the audacity to crease her brow at her lack of speech? This stupid little nurse who knew too much about symptoms and not enough about people. I was outright furious.

"I think you should check her into our mental facility, we can monitor her there in case she has some sort of emotional meltdown, which is quite possible."

Kiba put a hand on my shoulder and I brushed it off, "No."

I didn't know Katarina well, but I knew if I was anywhere near in her place the last thing I would need was a white room and a straightjacket.

"She's not going into a mental facility it will be fine."

"I'm just telling you there's a huge possibility that she will have mental problems."

"She won't she's just grieving she's not anywhere near," I began, then quieted, "I'll bring her back in a month, she'll be alright."

The nurse sighed again, it made me want to take back the polite restraint I had exercised and flip a few tables. She seemed to agree to a meeting in the future but she expressed how much she doubted a full recovery. I expressed that I doubted her competence in the first place. I had to drag myself out of the room, Kiba no doubt knew my logic would eventually suppress my out spoken side.

Kiba walked us back to our home, he stayed awhile, and he said he wanted to stay for dinner, compensation for his abuse. That's when I remembered dinner, and if there was one thing in the world I was awful at, it was making food. Give me some metal I'd make it into the finest dagger you've ever seen, give me some ingredients I'll do _everything_ wrong.

Kiba decided by about five in the afternoon that it was high time I cook him some meat. He shoved me in the kitchen with an aggressive push and I stared at all my cupboards. I located about every single instant ramen pack in my house and seriously considered just making those and throwing them in front of Kiba. I could play it off like it was a joke. Oh, I can cook well you just don't deserve my fine cuisine. Yeah, right.

I had a few ingredients for some miso soup. Maybe I could make that then just throw some meat into it…were you even allowed to do that? Well I was guessing there weren't any serious rules to cooking.

"Hurry up, Akira," Kiba yelled from the dining room.

"Hey! You want dinner so bad, you cook it!"

Now, did I put all the ingredients in and cook them, then add the water? It had to be like instant ramen right? I would just put water on, boil it and throw things in, right? No, no if I got it wrong I would never live it down. I grabbed some instant ramen and put some water into the dried, unnatural noodles.

"What are you cooking in there anyway," Kiba asked.

"Umm, well it's a surprise," I shouted back.

Kiba walked in, and Katarina followed.

"Are you...are you making instant ramen?"

I looked over at the group, Kiba and Katarina looked aghast. Then Kiba started laughing.

"It was a prank you stupid jerk," I shouted slamming the instant ramen down and crossing my arms.

Kiba glanced up at me, and began to laugh harder, "Your face is as red as your hair."

I put my hand on the base of my ponytail and growled.  
"You are so rude Kiba. Come over uninvited then laugh at my dinner?"

Katarina sighed and, with the shadow of a smile, floated past both of us and into the kitchen. She threw away the ramen and started going through the cupboards pulling out all sorts of items then riffling through the fridge for meat.

"Akira, can you get me a chopping knife?"

She had said my name; she'd never said it before. I like to think that's what made me grab the first butter knife I saw, but in reality I just should never have been anywhere near a kitchen. She looked at the knife with a raised eyebrow and sighed.

"You're hopeless, wait outside."

"Hey," I shouted in protest over Kiba's renewed laughter.

Slightly thankful for being kicked out I exited quickly to give Kiba a good slap. We chatted as we waited about passing the ninja academy exam, about my new house mate, but when you glanced over toward her she wasn't only a little more positive, but she was a humming a bit, just a bit. I was so glad to see her even a little happy that I managed to pull myself out of the ditch of death enough to make little jokes about Akumaru's new fighting style: biting shoes.

Finally, Katarina slapped a meal in front of us. It was beautiful, and a bit foreign, but Kiba and I didn't complain. There was the miso soup I had been too scared to make and some strange meat that was undoubtedly chicken but was cooked in the strangest way I had ever seen it.

As she sat down and made a few crummy jokes about my cooking with Kiba I knew that she wasn't gone. She couldn't be. The wounds were fresh, the tears were fresher, but she would make it through I knew it. After all, she was my blood, and the Leona, if anything were hard to knock down.


	6. Chapter 6: The Truth Comes Out

Chapter SIX:

It didn't rain the day of the funeral. A funeral a body short, with my mother being lowered down in the cheapest wooden coffin that Katarina and I could afford. We didn't even have money, we found a few bills around the house but we had to trade for it. We gave up about half of our food for a grave plot that wasn't even somewhere special it was just in the corner of the village in a little tiny field of dead grass, probably the only field of dead grass in all of Konoha.

Kiba offered money to help, Choji's mom begged me to accept a donation for a grave plot. I couldn't do it. The last thing I wanted was pity; it was almost a worse gift then a dead mother. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but pity is such a disgusting thing. It almost screams that they have no idea what you're going through, that they have no way to communicate with you except through 'I'm so sorry' and 'you poor girl.' I thanked them with all of the heart I had left to give, but I doubted my mother cared that she was in a bad coffin in a dead field. She never cared much about what happened to her body when she died, only what she did with it when it was living.

I remember the first time I realized the finality of death and came to her crying. She told me the most disconcerting thing you can tell a child, 'more reason to live life well.' It was true though, brutally true.

Now she was gone and I knew her well enough to know if she was standing beside me she wouldn't care one bit as they buried that body in the corner of Konoha. In fact she would probably prefer throwing her body into the woods to let the animals eat her, at least that way she would be of some use.

Many people, however, came to mourn her loss: many ninja, the Third Hokage himself, and about eighty percent of our classmates. Kiba and Choji were at my side with Katarina silent and watching with a small shade of guilt that didn't belong.

Shikamaru Nara was the first boy to come up. It was the first time I realized how intense his eyes were, brown beads to track every movement, cunning, sleepy eyes. They were amazing. He bowed his head and offered condolences in a tired tone.

It was particularly refreshing to have someone treat the ceremony for what it was, annoying and not needed. Though, he too had that air of apologetic sympathy even if it was dulled by his consistent lack of enthusiasm.

"Thank you, Shikamari."

He looked at me, opened his mouth again, sighed and walked away. Kiba cackled behind me.

"What did I do?"

Choji leaned over with a smile across his face.

"Um, Akira, his name is Shikamaru."

"Dammit," I groaned.

Then, the strangest thing, Katarina started laughing, and not just a calm little laugh, a raucous laugh. Heads snapped towards her as she quieted and I sent her a deadly glare.

"Did she just…umm…," Kiba muttered as he stared at Katrina as if she had just turned into a toad inexplicably, "Laugh?"

"Me," She said, "No way."

"Yes Kiba, laughing from her land really means that she's crying."

"Really?"

Katarina and I laughed again.

Of course it wasn't the most polite thing to do at your own mother's funeral, but it was a good moment to forget the black hole within me, and my mother would have wanted me to get over it my dad would to. On top of that there were so many people it wasn't as if the whole crowd saw us. However, after that outburst, as the funeral continued, more people began to talk too loudly of how they thought my mother died.

They said it was Katarina all by herself, and that now she was here to laugh at the graves. They said I had planned it and Katarina had been my weapon. They said it was both of us trying to get out of the responsibilities they had pinned on us. It was just people gossiping, but with every overheard word Katarina got a little bit more tense, and had just a little bit more anger in her eyes then sadness.

A man stopped me as I spoke to one of the Jonin, Asuma who had learned Shogi from her. I was telling him that I'd like to play him one day when the man grabbed my wrist.

"Did she do it, Akira?"

"No," I said spinning around to see a ninja I had never seen before.

"Then why has she not reported what's happened to the Hokage?"

"She's not ready to talk about it yet."

"That's because she's hiding something," the man barked.

I glanced over at Katrina, her hands were clenched into fists that shook violently.

"Or she's upset, we don't know what happened yet, leave her alone," I stated calmly.

"Yeah, until she kills our village, what then," The man said as he stared down my cousin with such a venomous expression I felt myself infected with his deep hatred.

"FINE," Katarina screamed, "YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, MY FUCKING BROTHER! HE SNAPPED!"

The crowds fell silent and I watched as a tear traced down my cousins tanned skin, skin like mine. I had to stop her.

"HE KILLED EVERYONE, EVERYONE, THE WHOLE VILLAGE! MY PARENTS, AKIRA'S PARENTS, EVERYONE! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!"

The man was quiet staring at my cousin as she took a deep breath. No one spoke, no one moved, just a crowd of people with shocked expressions on their face. Her own brother, I could only imagine the pain she would have gone through. Sure, my brother abandoned me, but that was…insanity.

She left after that, the crowd parted to allow her passage and I glanced at Choji and Kiba, then the grave somewhere between the people, my mother. She was dead, I was alive, mourning was one thing, but I didn't need the closure process. I started to go after her, but Kiba stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Leave her alone."

I turned around to the man who had shouted earlier.

"Loyalty to the village, cruelty, and suspicion should not hold hands. You have your answer I hope you're satisfied."

He glanced at me then turned away in embarrassment, at least he had the decency to do so. I turned around to Kiba.

"I have to go," I said, "Make sure my mom's all settled in will you?"

Then I ran, jogged away from my own mother's funeral. Down through the village already a speech planned out to try and speak to her, about staying strong. I burst into the house and saw her, her brown hair down around her face, sitting in the same chair she was when my mother died. Her head snapped in my direction, her eyes, pure grey, glared at me in a very daring fashion. I smiled at her.

My whole speech bubbled in my throat ready to explode out with rehearsed lines and cheesy sayings but I couldn't manage it.

"I can't believe I got his name wrong."

She smiled, ever so slightly.


	7. Chapter 7: Fighting Poverty

Chapter SEVEN:

The Third Hokage stared down his nose at Katarina, a nose that possessed one single eye catching wart. She couldn't stop looking at it, the man was ancient. He looked back down at his papers and read them out loud.

"Katarina Suzume , a Genin of the Land of Mist and you want to become a Genin for the Leaf?"

Kat nodded.

"You've been here for an entire week, and today your cousin is taking the final Genin exam."

He hummed thoughtfully tapping his fingers against the desk; finally he gazed back into Kat's eyes.

"Why do you want to trade your loyalty?"

Katarina had only one legitimate reason. She couldn't eat instant ramen another night. Akira was fine with it, but she just couldn't do it. They needed money, yet Katarina didn't say such.

"Because I like this village."

He watched her for quite a while then frowned, "No. I reject your request."

Katarina watched the old man with an expression of lack of comprehension in the wake of shocked anxiety.

"There are no teams we'd be able to place you on, the graduation spots are full, also just liking the village is not enough. There will come a day when you must fight your old friends, your old allies and be forced to slay them without thought. You are not prepared for facing your own people if your only reason is 'I like it.'"

Katarina stumbled out of the Hokage's office surprised that her meeting had gone so poorly when she saw Akira. She was walking with Kiba, her face was covered in dirt, and her ninja headband was missing from her forehead. She saw Katarina and waved. The two met and Katarina asked eagerly if she had passed the Genin final test.

"How did you know?"

"The Hokage told me."

"Well…um, it's an interesting story, an awful story actually," she said tightening her ponytail so she could avoid eye contact.

It really was just a matter of bad luck. I was paired with two boys, one of which had such poor grades he didn't even show up to be sorted onto a team, so that made it so there were only two of us. The other boy was so dependent that as soon as our sensei came in he wrapped his arms around him and kissed his ass.

The test was to find the scroll he had hidden for the village. The trick was that, judging on the strange bulge in the pouch on his hip, was that it was actually on him. My teammate refused to believe our sensei would ever deceive us.

He refused to attack with me. So I thought I'd be stealthy, just sneak up behind him. It was freaking impossible, every time it was a damn clone or a damn substitution. The time ran out he said we should work as a team, and then he gave us a second chance. The other boy _still _didn't believe me, the time ran out again and we failed, just like that. Completely back to where we had started in the academy.

It was an awful terrible failure only enhanced when I saw Choji with his new group, Ino ran up and invited me to a party for graduating official Genin. Then said:

"Oh, but where's your forehead protector, you didn't fail did you _Tangles_?"

I rolled my eyes, and left as she shouted the time after me.

"Seven, bring your headband _Tangles_!"

Fucking obnoxious. Then Kiba showed up and of course he had passed so that left me. Naruto even passed and I was out on my ass just like that. Then I come to find out that Katarina didn't become a Leaf Genin. That meant we were not only failures in general but were officially eating only one meal a day of instant ramen to keep our breathing a regular habit.

Later as we sat at the dinner table Kat suggested we get jobs.

"Sure, we could try but it wouldn't be easy, the citizens need the jobs, they snatch them really quickly not a lot of jobs for kids our age anyway. Then again we could just show up as starving skeleton children that might give us a job."

"Then what are we going to do," Kat asked, "Just sit down and die?"

"I mean if it means we get to sleep in more than I guess that would be okay."

Kat laughed.

"I say we ration the food and at least try to get jobs."

Kat nodded and we stayed silent in self-pity. We both headed off to our respected bedrooms, hers within the guest bedroom across the hall from mine. I was asleep, or as asleep as I could be, when someone started beating against the door.

My mind leaped back to my mother's death as I found myself staring at the front door as I listened to the knocks, over and over. What if it was Choji who was dying this time? What if there was another cousin? I stared at the door as it bounced on its hinges.

"Sister, open the door!"

That was-I jumped a foot and tumbled down the stairs. I tripped over my own feat to unlock the door and shove it wide open.

There he was, the bastard. I turned on the porch light and the spot light shown on my brother, he was dressed as a Chunin with his black hood dragged over his head in some mysterious fashion. His sword, the knight's blade was on his back and behind him was yet another figure. A boy.

He had brown hair which, by what I assumed was the light seemed to have a light blue tint to it in places. He wore a mask covering all of his lower face stopping right beneath his eyes. It showed his green. He had a large staff on his back, and wore a black baggy jacket; very similar to the one Kat seemed to lean towards when she left the house.

He was a ninja without a headband.

I looked back at my brother. He grabbed his sword, pulled it out of its sheath and dropped the first _half _of the blade in my hands.

"It broke."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO IT THIS WAS A GIFT YOU KNOW?! Fine, whatever leave for years then come back to hand me my broken present and bring some boy with you, what are you paying at anyways, who says we'll take you in we don't have enough money to feed are own damn stomachs!"

"We?"

"Yes, our cousin is here now, because well, because mom and dad…"

My brother took a step inside and shoved the hood off of his auburn hair. He rolled up the sleeves of his black jacket and there they were, our parents' names engraved in his skin with ink.

He looked different, the years hadn't been kind to him and his once pale skin was dark, his once smooth face coated in stubble. His stature had changed as well, he towered above me and he had grown strong. In fact he looked more like a wall then a human being the way he stood. He had wrinkles as well, which was completely unusual for a boy of twenty yet there he was with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, each a hint toward some war story or funny moment, a sort of maturity.

"Brother? You know?"

"I heard on my way here, Kat survived," He asked his grey eyes, so like mine, piercing me.

I nodded, "Do you know her?"

"No."

He pushed past me into the house and the boy followed. I stopped the boy and grabbed his arm dropping the half of my blade in the process.

"And who is this?"

"A student," my brother said.

I growled, "Since when did you have students?! You abandon your whole damn family and come back with a kid, what the hell were you doing?! In fact, you know what, come back here I didn't give you the propped greeting, how long has it been, four years?"

My brother turned towards me at the base of the stairs and said one simple word, "Tomorrow."

"You aren't getting off that easy," I yelled as I dropped the boy raced to my brother, turned him towards me and punched him as hard as I could.

As his head flew to the side I saw a long jagged scar across his neck. He spit out blood and it fell to the wooden floor with a disgusting splat. He wasn't my brother anymore, he couldn't be.

"Do you feel better?"

"WHERE WERE YOU AND WHO IS THIS?!"

"Good night, Akira, Satoru, find a bedroom and sleep, we'll all speak tomorrow."

My brother began to trudge up the stairs. I was left in the dark frozen, surprised and furious. I stormed after him as he went up the stairs, but he managed to get into his room and lock the door before I reached him. I banged on the door angrily demanding answers.

"Tomorrow," he answered.

Bastard.


	8. Chapter 8: An Awkward Breakfast

Chapter EIGHT:

I didn't sleep. Of course I didn't. He was back after four years without a word as to how, or why, who would sleep? My brother was back. I was overjoyed and angry, scared and suspicious.

He wasn't the same, my brother the one who travelled through the village in pajamas, my brother, the one who was an outright smooth talker. It was his job. He was a negotiator. He dealt with outer and inner affairs within the village since he was a kid and did extremely well for himself. He carved a name for himself when he was ten. Imagine, a ten year old sent to negotiate and doing well, it was incredible, yet it was his strong suit. Then one day he just disappeared, left.

He had been recently negotiating with an internal affair within the village, that was all I knew, but he was so tense and aggravated I wanted to help. That's why I made the sword, the sword he broke.

Seeing as I wasn't even a Genin I would no doubt have enough time to fix it. It was in awful shape, dull beaten, scratched and broken. I told him to be careful with it, I mean sure it was going into battle but he could have at least tried to sharpen it once in a while. It was almost reassuring to see one of my best pieces in ruin. It was a little ray of hope that a little bit of my semi-irresponsible brother was still in there being a complete moron.

Yet now he was cold and detached. Maybe he was tired. However, the brother I had known would not have been so affected from a lack of sleep.

When the morning came I tugged on a grey tank top and some black leggings to find the source of a smell that had erupted through the house. The dreaded scent of instant ramen. When I reached the kitchen my brother was awake with the boy beside him and Kat was in the kitchen. I was surprised I hadn't heard them earlier. I sat down opposite my brother. He was still being quiet. Finally I turned to his student, Satoru .

"So where are you from?"

"My mother."

At a better time in a better place I would have laughed. No, I was miles away from laughing at this situation. I crossed my arms and glanced back over at my brother. He was staring at the table lost in some sad memory. I was about to point out that it was morning, he was still in my house, and he hadn't explained himself when Kat came in and slid instant ramen cups in front of us.

My brother stared at the meal before him, and to my contentment didn't say a word, neither did the boy. They ate their food with such alacrity you would have thought them starved for months. Kat and I didn't touch are food, not yet. I turned towards her.

"Did you hear them come in last night?"

"Who wouldn't," she replied.

I had been yelling a lot, I was surprised Kat hadn't checked out the situation for herself, or maybe she was much stealthier then I had known and was secretly within the room the whole time. The thought was a good distraction from the mountainous source of displeasure sitting on the opposite side of the table.

They finished the meal and silence consumed our group.

"So why the hell did you leave us," I spat.

My brother looked up at me then gazed back at the table, as if somewhere on the wooden surface he would find a way to answer my question.

"The Uchiha's," He said slowly.

"What? Sasuke's family?"

"The Uchiha's," Kat repeated, "You mean the ones with the Sharingan?"

"Yes," My brother said.

I turned towards Kat, "Technically we're related to them, not closely enough for anyone to suspect a Sharingan to awaken, but we are. Your dad, _our_ uncle, he was a special case with his Sharingan, but the keekai genkai has really become extinct in this branch."

"Yeah," Kat said as she too looked down at the table with a tensed expression.

"But what do they have to do with it," I asked.

My brother took in a deep breath and looked into the kitchen, eyes averted from my view.

"They were plotting to overthrow the Leaf four years ago. We had to put a stop to it. The Elders placed an ANBU member, Itachi Uchiha, in charge of executing his whole entire family for the sake of the village's safety."

I covered my mouth, "That's horrible."

It was almost identical to Kat's story, but her brother had been operating outside of and mission as far as I knew. He had just lost it. Then again Kat did seem to leave out parts in her story. I wouldn't want to talk about it either if I was her.

How could the village do that? Just like that, one snap and they kill their own citizens. Was there really no other way?

"The Third Hokage was against it. He hired me to negotiate with the Elders themselves and change their mind, to find peace, to establish a friendship once again."

"But you didn't succeed."

My brother nodded, "On the night that Itachi was finally ordered to kill all the Uchiha, I left the village out of shame that I could not save them. That's why I left, sister."

It was both an honorable and moronic thing to do. He had tried to save others, it was something I was proud of for him, but leaving the village because of one failure was so pointless. I would have stayed in the village; I would have launched some sort of reform against that corruption.

"Why though, what would leaving accomplish," I asked.

My brother turned back towards me, but this time the apathetic expression in his eyes was gone, and there, inside of that large overgrown man, was my brother, sad, upset, and angry at himself. He was always too hard on himself. Then again, if I had failed in a mission like that I would have been…distraught to say the least.

"I had to gain some sort of power. I had to better myself so nothing like that would happen again."

"Did it work," I asked.

He shrugged. How damn reassuring.

"So what, you go out into the woods, village's permission I hope, and bring back some random kid and no confidence?"

"I'm an orphan," Satoru said suddenly, "He saved me from the streets."

"Okay, so…why though, you don't pity others brother, besides you're usually all for advancement via individual determination, right? So why?"

"He showed promise," my brother said cryptically.

I could tell by the way he watched my reaction that one of the biggest reasons he picked up that boy was out of guilt for leaving me. We were the same age, the same height, same obnoxious wit, he was a replacement me for a lonely man. I didn't know whether to be disgusted or feel pity for him, I leaned more towards disgust.

"If you wanted a little sibling you could have just come home!"

"Why are you living off of instant ramen, and why is mother in that awful grave plot," he interrupted.

It came out of nowhere I practically leaped a few feet into the air at his perceptiveness.

"We're poor," I sighed, "Kat can't transfer her ninja status because the Hokage doesn't think she's loyal and I didn't pass the last exam because I couldn't work with my team."

I told him everything that had happened. I told him every detail of the test and my teammates, every bit, even the blood on the couch pillows that we still hadn't dealt with. He watched nodding every once and a while. When I was done he stared at me.

"I'm still a Chunin I can get us money."

"It won't be enough for four people," I stated.

He looked around the table at all of us, each in turn then stood up, the chair behind him skidding across the ground. He started to leave the room.

"Where are you going," I shouted after him.

"To test myself."


	9. Chapter 9: Team Zero

Chapter NINE:

I have no earthly idea of how he managed to do it. It made no sense. He just did. He left us for a day and came back with the most exciting news I would receive in years.

We would be allowed one test, administered by my brother designed by the Hokage to determine loyalty to the village and capability in a fight. It would be harder than any other test administered and our leader afterwards would be my own brother who had, as of that day, been promoted to a Jonin at long last.

Our team if we succeeded would not be able to be considered among the nine to graduate from my class. Instead due to our founding date we would be called Team Zero.

We were to execute the test assigned to us the next day, so we went to sleep early.

The next day we gathered in front of the sixteenth training grounds on the outskirts of the village. It was a grassy area with trees and rocks and a river slithering through it. A beautiful place that was great for hiding. As we waited for my brother to come I turned to my group.

"What's our inventory?"

The two stared at me a moment before looking through their pouches, Kat didn't even have to look but Satori did.

"I have a set of twenty shuriken, ten kunai, and five explosive tags," She said.

"I have five shuriken, ten kunai, ten explosive tags, and five food pills."

"Food pills and five shuriken? Food pills we should split up there's three of us so I'd say two for you and Kat since I'll mainly be using my blade and very few jutsu so I won't use up that much chakra."

"What do you have," Kat asked.

"Three kunai, twelve shuriken, medical gauze, my katana and three smoke bombs we can divide up."

We began switching around our materials, when Satori asked me what I thought the test would be about.

"I'm guessing based off of both of your foreign sides that you'll be forced into showing deep devotion for the village, so if the chance arrives, show it. Kat, for you it's devotion for new food, Satori, it's for what my brother did for you as a mentor, remember that and follow your heart; you are becoming Leaf ninja after all. Besides that it will be a test of endurance, strength and logic. It'll test everything. Since my brother is administering it I know that we'll be up against the basic chakra nature of fire. If he's attacking us."

"I can help with that," Kat said, "I know a bit about water jutsu that might help."

Of course she knew legitimate jutsu, she had been a Genin much longer then us, she had, had better training, and she would be our ace in the hole.

"That may be so, but his jutsu will be stronger. You're going to need to find the right opportunity to use a water jutsu on him. What about you Satori, what can you do?"

"What can you do," he asked.

"Expert Kenjutsu."

"That's it?"

"Yes," I said angrily, "Got a problem with that?"

There was a noise behind us and three ninja shot out of the trees. They stopped in front of us, all ninja with headbands from the Land of Mist. Then they raced past us. They ran so quickly into the heart of the town you knew they were up to no good. However, what were the chances enemy ninja would bolt from the woods during the day of a test for loyalty. This was a trick, but the others didn't catch on. It was best to guide them to defeat the foes.

"Those men were suspicious, we should stop them," I said.

Kat and Satori nodded and we ran after the three, through the village running past people, jumping onto the roofs. The ninja we followed suit without any hesitation, each of us chasing after one. My own looked heavily outfitted with a large Fuma shuriken on his back and clothing made of rags. He stopped after a good two more minutes of running and turned towards me.

It really only took a second. It was kind of sad how easy it was.

"Who are you," I yelled.

"I'm going to kill the Hokage."

I took out a smoke bomb and my katana, threw the smoke bomb and sliced through the man while he was distracted by the bomb in the air. The weight that I was cutting through however vanished into thin air, and when my smoke cleared he was gone. It had been a clone.

I decided it was best to go and find Kat and Satori in case they needed help. I burst over the buildings and almost ran straight into Kat.

"Did you beat him too," She asked.

I nodded.

"Now where's the real one."

"Well…um…Kat I don't think-"

"We need to go find Satori."

I nodded and we left together, not a scratch on either of us. Satori met us on the roofs as well. All of them had been clones. Suddenly, there was a poof of smoke and a man appeared. He was the same man we had been chasing after, the real one possibly, or my brother using some sort of transformation jutsu. The latter being more plausible by far.

"Why do you protect this leader?"

I almost wanted to slap my brother for this; it was the most obvious moronic test I had ever seen in my life. No one answered, they had to see now that it was a trick. Then Satori tried to take him head on. He swept past Kat and I with his staff pulled out, he attempted to hit the man on the face. He succeeded, but he hit a log.

"Where did he go," Satori asked.

I felt an arm suddenly wrap around my throat and was forced to push the limb away with my hands to avoid being choked. The next thing I knew there was the tip of a kunai pressed to my forehead.

"Try and stop me and I'll kill your friend."

Now this was more like it, sacrificial piece, this might frighten them. Nope. Satori didn't even stop he just charged again with the damn staff, and Kat jumped off the roof.

The man threw Satori aside with a painful smack and raised the kunai to bring it down on my forehead. I struggled to move one of my hands to the center of the man's arm so I could reach for a weapon with at least one free hand.

"Behind you," Kat said, and the man yelled as I heard a disgusting squish of a blade sinking into unprepared flesh. The man let go of me and I turned around took out my sword and ran it through his heart for good measure.

His eyes were wide open in shock, brown orbs full of the mental chaos of death. He looked down at the sword in his heart then fell to the ground. Part of me was horrified with worry that I had killed my own brother, but the man stayed there, a legitimate corpse with two wounds one kunai still sticking out of his back. Kat picked it up and put it back into the pouch on her hip as if nothing had occurred.

"How did you get behind him," I asked her.

"Chakra Absorption Jutsu: Shadow Cloak."

I was about to ask her what the hell that meant when I realized Satori had been hurt. I turned to see his body in a curled shape of agony. He groaned and rubbed his forehead, he had taken a fall, but his ability to move was a clear indication he hadn't been knocked out or had suffered a concussion. He leaped onto his feet and nodded at the dead body like they had just finished a grim business deal.

I was about to criticize his rash actions when I heard someone clear their throat. I turned around to see my brother; in his hands were three Leaf ninja headbands with black cloth.

"You used teamwork, and showed loyalty. You pass."

"Wait," I shouted, "But he wasn't a clone!"

"No," my brother said as he handed Kat her Leaf headband, "It was a convict, to be executed tomorrow."

I felt like I should have said something. Should have asked what my brother was thinking letting a convict attack Genin when he could have escaped. Yet instead I stared at that body and let out a sigh. He was my first kill. They had taught us day in and day out not to humanize the enemy, not to ever look back on the deaths we had caused, but that was impossible. I had taken a life with my own blade, and I could never go back on that.

My brother handed me my headband and I gazed at the symbol. Was this what my village was? A place where boys were forced to kill their own families, a place where children killed damned men for tests? Was I really loyal to this place?


	10. Chapter 10: A Genin Life

Chapter TEN:

What I thought would be the happiest occurrence in my life ended up being one of the time periods where I questioned myself the most. Not even about serious, important things, say the meaning of life or why I was letting Satori live in my house even though all he said was sarcastic, witty, put downs. No, I wondered why someone hired ninja to freaking plant their garden. Seriously?

It was worse than the academy!

At least in the academy you could have some target practice, now it was: 'Fix my roof!' or 'Cook my Meals.' My brother wasn't easy on us either; it was always work, work, work. We woke up, did five D rank missions and then finally when we were done my brother would look at us. I would imagine him smiling like he once did before, that big goofy sophomoric smile, and he would say something like, 'You guys did a really good job today what about we call it a day and you can all go take a nap?' Yet he was cold as ever. How he convinced anyone to do anything for him was a mystery to me, but then again, every time he told us to go train after our missions we still did it. Grudgingly, of course, but we still did it.

By the next day we'd go to see the Hokage and be bruised to absolute pieces, but we'd be too tired to complain. And trust me at that. You know me, I always have that energy, but I was just…so tired.

It was about a week into the arduous routine that I finally started witnessing some kinship in our group, in that I started to understand my mysterious teammates just a bit more.

Kat explained her jutsu to me, that Chakra Absorption: Shadow Cloak. It was a unique and very difficult jutsu that involved the complete molding of one's entire self to the very small trace amounts of chakra that lurked in the shadows, and by very small I mean incredibly, incredibly small. After she molded to the shadows she was useable until she reached out of them, at the same time, she could also jump from shadow to shadow based on a certain amount of distance that she was trying to elongate. She had used the ability to zap behind the man who was choking me, though she told me she was terrible at it.

I told her she should try to scare me with it, it would be good training. It ended up being great training for me as well. I subconsciously began to recognize the feel of certain chakra as an attempt to guard myself against her surprise attacks, which she just loved doing to me.

Then there was Satori. I still had no idea what he could do, but I learned a bit about who he was…and to be honest it was a bit…heartbreaking.

It was a quiet night. I had woken up in the middle of the night because I had accidentally hit a bruise against the edge of my night table and realized I really wanted a nice glass of hot tea with some milk. So I got up, I didn't even notice walking by Satori's tense frame. I was really focused on my bruise, I was decently sure that my bruise was bruised in fact. If that was plausible.

I stumbled into the kitchen searching for the tea bags that Kat had been buying for me when I heard Satori clear his throat. I jumped out of my skin spun towards him and was halfway to doing a hand seal for an Earth jutsu before I realized it was him.

"You scared me," I muttered, as I held my chest in surprise.

He didn't look well. His mask was off revealing a simple boy with thin lips and an intense frown.

"I want to tell you something."

I honestly jumped to some very strange conclusions, but that sad look in his green eyes, the way he stared at the ground, I knew it was something important, not something strange and trivial like Kiba or Choji would ask me.

"What is it?"

"Well…thank you."

He gave me the words on a plate he had not fully decided to give to me. In fact it seemed like the words he forced himself to let go, however there was no doubt he meant them.

"For what," I asked, "What did I do?"

"For letting me stay here."

He glared hard at the wall beside him with a clear inability to be a part of the conversation we were having.

"I don't want to be thought less of for not ever having a home; its just-it's just nice to feel like I have one. I think."

I watched him, mouth slightly open in surprise eyebrows creased in worry.

"Are you sick or something?"

"SHUT UP," He shouted and stormed into the dining room through the archway.

I poked my head around the wall and saw him in the dark room, his arms crossed, clearly brooding.

"Don't mention it, Satori, we like having you here."

He smiled and glanced at me, a little smirk across his face.

"You're so lying."

"Am not, you brat," I groaned giving up on his sorry case as I went back to searching for my tea.

It was quiet for some time as I found the small box in the corner of one of the cabinets, a little hidden place. I opened up the new package and grabbed out one tea bag.

"I-um," Satori started.

I stopped moving, dropped what I was doing to listen.

"Your brother picked me up off of the streets, I was homeless. I tried to pickpocket him."

"Did it work?"

"Of course it did he's slow as shit," Satori bragged, "But then he took me in, brought me here, then you and Kat took me in."

"So?"

"I don't know," I could almost hear the shrug he must have done as he spoke, "I just feel like I'm not homeless anymore and it's thanks to you."

"If you don't cut it with the awkward mushy stuff you might end up homeless," I teased.

I heard him laugh from the other room and leave. We didn't talk again for a solid week besides falling back into old argumentative habits, but at least I knew now. He had been without a family, and now he had one, that was the difference he was feeling, and he just didn't know how to deal with it.

Hey, at least one of us was happy with our life decisions. I wasn't happy until about two weeks had passed and my brother came in one evening and told us it was time to make the jump to C rank missions.

The first one: It made me realize something, something life changing….


	11. Chapter 11: The Awful Cook

Chapter ELEVEN:

We met in the cool air of the morning at the gate. My brother gave us more fluent details as we went. It was direct orders, however to get the man Kyo away from the Hidden Leaf as quickly as possible.

He wasn't any serious evil that we had to deal with. He was simply an awful cook that had been run out of a nearby town by his own customers. That reason, was apparently the only reason why we were escorting him back to his home in the Takumi village. However, he was late to our meet.

We sat in the calm air, yawning, and groaning.

"If this guy doesn't show up, I'm going home," Kat stated.

"Sounds like a good plan," I responded, "But this is our money source, and the last time I checked you didn't want to eat instant ramen anymore."

"Well yeah," she said, "But how much are we really making off of this mission?"

I yawned loudly and spread myself across the cold stone road to watch the sky, already on its way for the day. Carefree, beautiful, it waited for no one.

"About 30,000 ryo to about…100,000 ryo somewhere in that range, depends on the mission. Did the Hokage tell you, Ryuu?"

I glanced towards my brother, he was watching the pathway ahead of us with an intense glare, like the road had wronged him in some atrocity years ago. Such a grumpy twenty year old.

"It was 40,000 split three ways."

"Well it's still going to the same place," I said dismissively.

There was a cloud floating above us. It was a great backdrop for thinking, after all how long had it been trying to picture action and intense missions, and success. I'd rub it in Kiba's face when I got home. his team hadn't even touched a C-rank mission yet. Choji's team had only done one. It was a mission for hunting animals where Ino almost up and quit being a ninja. I wondered if she would be okay with the hardships of the lifestyle she had selected. She seemed like such a demonic girl to me, I thought she would have been strong in the face of others suffering, but my dislike of her clearly clouded any real judgment of the good aspects of her. Why was I even thinking about this?!

I glanced back at Kat she was counting some mystery object on her fingers.

"What are you doing?"

"Seeing how much food we could buy."

She looked out towards the outside of Konoha, and gasped.

"Finally," Satori said.

I jumped up to see a man waiting at the gate, not even a man, possibly a boy about three years older than us, his chin tucked into a place that was almost above his nose. As he approached us I could see a white bandana and dark eyes the color of freezing metal gazing down at us as if we ourselves were simply ants for him to step on.

A companion was with him as well, the same age but shorter. His eyes downcast, head tucked between his shoulders as if to avoid coming blows, which exposed, greasy dirty locks of dark hair. His whole body was weighed down with cargo from, no doubt, the boy in front of us.

"You are Kyo," my brother demanded more than asked the white bandana.

If he were to nod it seemed it would degrade him far too much so he refrained from doing so, instead he looked down upon my brother, quite a feat since he was much shorter.

"Yes," he stated.

Kat and I simultaneously sighed, and Satori took it upon himself to elbow both of us. Ironic coming from a boy who was the ultimate example of rudeness…at least when people were around.

"This is Moe, now, come along," he said.

He just spun around on his heel and walked out of the village, just like that. To be honest I expected him to do a little obnoxious double clap before he floated off. I was disappointed.

His assistant followed us through the gate; he was holding far too many bags for his shaky frame.

"Would you like me to carry some of those," I asked.

He waved me away, "Don't worry about me."

"What if I carry them in exchange for a bit of information," I asked.

He looked at me, with cunning eyes and stopped to give me a large box he had been wrapping his arms around. I hugged the object to my stomach, and Kat asked the first question, the one I was planning on asking anyways.

"So what's his problem?"

I turned around, "You read my mind."

The assistant cleared his throat, "Master Kyo is very proud of his work, all of this mess is a disgrace on his cooking prowess."

"From what I hear," I started.

The assistant turned mid stride and shoved a finger to his chapped lips.

"Don't say that about the master, he doesn't take those words to kindly."

"All she said was from what I hear," Kat pointed out.

"I take it insults are common?"

Moe nodded sadly, closing his eyes and bobbing his head like his neck had been damaged some time before.

"The master is a fine…well…," Moe brought his shoulders up to his ear lobes then dropped them down again with a dramatic sigh, "He is very…"

"He doesn't think he's bad and he won't listen to anyone else, right?"

The assistant let out a nervous cackle, "Well-no. He dreamed about being a chef, then he comes out in front of the world and no one wants him."

"That would be disappointing," I said watching the proud man in front of us stride ahead as if we too were his servants.

What would happen if I came in front of the world and tried to show off my weapons? Well, if no one liked them I would try harder, because clearly something had to be wrong. Somehow, I didn't think I was going to be able to be the most empathetic to him if he didn't try to improve after so many complaints.

"So he's stubborn," I muttered.

"As an ox," Kat finished.

We walked a little ways speaking about the village we were heading to. It was a place famous for crafting blades. My mouth was watering at the thought. Granted to make a good katana would take weeks, but I could get proper supplies, and maybe I could learn something new. However, it resided in the Land of Rivers. A normal trip with only ninja would get us there in a day, easily, but with two simple citizens it would be three arduous days until we got there.

Even then I was promised a lack of high spirits, many of the villages cared little for their excellent craftsmanship, which seemed a little ridiculous to me seeing as a ninja on average had at least one kunai. Anyways, the obsolete nature of weapons had led to a lack of practice and a general dislike for other villages.

The day turned into dusk and as we began to near the need to settle down and camp there was a rustle among one of the trees.

The reaction was immediate.

We froze, the two citizens kept walking.

A man clad in gear fit for a ninja, the sun's last rays shining off of his head band. He leaped out of the brush.

"YOU KILLED HIM," he screamed as the words ripped through the calm.

He bolted in a straight line, straight for Kyo…we had to move.


	12. Chapter 12: The Mystery

Chapter TWELVE:

The kunai sliced through the air. My brother disappeared in a cloud of dust and reappeared in front of Kyo. The kunai made a sickening sound as it lodged into the very center of the man's throat. He kept running and fell at my brother's feet, face first. Unpleasantly so, the kunai was hit against the ground with such force the point was seeable within the back of the man's neck. He gasped for air a few times, and we watched, horrified and stunned, as the man's eyes watched us wide as he took one more shaky breath, and then thankfully, shut his eyes and ceased his struggle.

I turned to who had thrown the kunai to see Kat, still in a fighting stance watching the body with a sort of stun yet slight victory in her inhuman eyes.

Something nestled within my heart that I was unaccustomed to, a sort of deep, awful, hate. It begged to be set free.

My brother turned over the body. On the man's forehead protector, in the dying light of day the engraving of a familiar bird-like leaf symbol rested in stone, but wavered in the audacity of its existence. Why would a leaf ninja ever attack a cook?

The man was unknown to any of us, yet still he was a comrade.

"Do you know," I asked the cook, "He said you killed him, that's what he shouted."

Kyo put a hurt hand on his heart, his eyes gazing down, "I would never kill another."

He wasn't phased in the least, it was completely odd, he just didn't care, however when he turned around I could see very distinctly the way his fingers twitched with unease.

"Let's set up camp here," my brother said in a cold tone.

"You must be joking," the chef said, aghast at such an ugly suggestion.

"I'm not."

A dead body of gilt might loosen a plausible killer's tongue. On top of that, the recovery of that kunai would be hard, and their might have been something on his body we could identify him with.

"I will not sleep next to some corpse," Kyo stated in a huff.

"You will," my brother confirmed.

I didn't see the look my brother gave the man but judging by the reaction from Kyo's face it was quite convincing. I dropped the object I had been carrying for Moe and fell beside the man's body, not sure of what to do with my hands, fascinated with the way his face didn't even twitch. Depressed by the thought of a wasted life.

"I wonder if he was alone," I muttered.

"Well," Kat said with a shrug, "He's dead now."

I turned around to see her staring, with no remorse, at the man she had stolen the life of.

"YOU IDIOT," I shouted angrily.

Before I knew what I was doing I was on my feet stomping towards her.

"Why did you just kill him?! Don't you think?! Don't you understand the weight of taking someone else's life?!"

"We're ninja," she shouted back, "Making the enemy someone we can spare is not a part of a mission. It's protect Kyo. Nothing else."

"NOW IT'S GOING TO BE TEN TIMES HARDER! How are we supposed to know if he was alone or if Kyo is a murderer we may be escorting to freedom. If that man were alive he could have done so much good, but you killed him just like that," I snapped, "With no thought! What if that had been a member of the Leaf, an honored ninja you had taken down without thinking?!"

"Then he wouldn't have been a very good ninja," she yelled.

I wanted to punch her in the face, right then. I wanted to so badly. I could feel my blood boil.

"You took another's life without any thought to consequences or strategy. You didn't think of the normal Body Flicker jutsu almost all the Jonín have, capable of moving so fast the eye can't catch it. You completely didn't think about what he said, you just killed him. A killer instinct will only get you so far, and get innocent people _very_ dead! Do you understand?! Do you understand me?!"

"HE WAS CHARGING AT HIM WE HAD TO STOP HIM!"

"HE WOULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED!"

She glared at me, "Our mission is to guard him, that's what I did."

"You haven't protected him. It's plausible now that Kyo is a killer in that case the whole mission will have changed. That's the truth we may have just destroyed. At the point where you're destroying a man who may give us an informational advantage you are no longer helping Konoha! You're scum! Do you get it?!"

"Since when were you so loyal to Konoha!"

"AKIRA! KAT," Satori yelled, "You both have good points, now move the hell on."

"NO," we both shouted.

My brother stepped in, a look in his eyes that said he was disappointed in me though I was too distraught to care, "No life should be wasted if it can be saved," he said.

It made my heart leap to hear such familiar words. It was a glimpse of my brother four years ago. Full of life, strength, self-confidence, happiness. My heart fell when he went back to the body, ripped the kunai out and started to shift through the man's pockets. He didn't even scold his student.

"THIS IS COMPLETELY FUCKED UP! YOU'RE THIRTEEN, AND YOU DON'T HAVE A DAMN HEART I HOPE YOU'RE FUCKING HAPPY," I screamed in Kat's face.

Her eyes widened and she growled, "YEAH, WELL IF YOU THINK YOU CAN SAVE EVERYONE YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER BECOME A NINJA!"

"AT LEAST SPARE THE ONES WITH INFORMATION!"

We screamed back and forth, it grew from about the man to something more, almost a philosophical argument about when to kill others, all added in were petty jabs about flaws and complete and utter anger. Satori tried to stop us but we were in each other's faces, glaring each other down. We weren't stoppable. Not until Kyo shoved two dishes under our noses with a smug smile and told us to eat up. My lungs were hurting. I needed a break. I turned towards the man's food. It looked like a pile of some sort of soup, with a strange shape defying gravity. Kat leaned down and sniffed it.

Behind her I spotted Moe, he was shaking his head vigorously.

"I'm not eating this, it's worse than instant ramen."

"C'mon it can't be that bad," I sad, mainly just to possess the antithesis of Kat's opinion.

Moe was now waving his arms in an X formation as quickly as he could.

I ate a bite. It tasted like…it tasted awful. I spit it out, but the taste was still in my mouth and very suddenly I vomited.

"I told you so," Kat said and hurried off to go make herself some food.

Kyo looked insulted. I was about to open my mouth, say something about Kat always being picky, and maybe throw in a lie about how weak my stomach was. Instead he marched off in an angry huff. In the last glimpses of day as a fire was set and Kat began to cook some edible food I saw my brother throwing the body of the fallen ninja into the bush.

He was dead. He could have been a loved man, someone who had a nice grave plot waiting for him, but if he were he'd just be a name now on some memorial stone titled MIA because we decided not to care enough. We were disgusting.

Then again he could have been evil, in which case, and even more disconcerting, we were in danger.

Satori found me and pulled me into seclusion later that night.

"What's the plan, your brother wants to know what you think?"

My brother had sent Satori not to be conspicuous, just two kids talking to each other in hushed voices, have nothing to fear we were certainly not trained killers. At least I was starting to doubt that I was.

"If he is a killer we need to keep watch of him. We'll need to take turns, and someone should investigate Moe. We won't get anywhere if we don't ask questions. We have to be on the lookout as far as we know there are more heading towards us at this very moment."

He nodded, opened his mouth to say something but shut it again. The blood still boiling in my system, my own abhorrence for every second transpiring on this mission, I wasn't able to care for what he was going to say. I wasn't able to see that there were parts of this mission that just weren't adding up.


	13. Chapter 13: A Deal

Chapter THIRTEEN:

The next day could best be described as tense. I took great care not to look anywhere near Kat, instead I glued my eyes to the back of the chef's head.

Moe had said his master would never do something like killing a man on purpose, but he had also said many had been hurt from the food he had made, with allergic reactions, choking, or just plain hurt by the stuff like I was.

I had never thought food could have anywhere near that effect on me.

What if it had been an accidental kill? It could have been a leaf ninja who had eaten some food and died and his allies felt the need for revenge. Then would we consider him still a criminal? We'd have to. If his cooking was that atrocious he killed people with it we'd need to confront the issue. Or maybe he had cooked such a poor meal on purpose. The possibilities were endless. Moe hadn't remembered any ninja coming in, he said he wasn't good with faces, and of course Kyo was touchy about the topic.

We were left wondering and hypothesizing. It wasn't good enough, information needed to be compiled it could lead to more deaths if it wasn't. It was stressful to think about, and my relationship with Kat was just one more thing on the plate.

What was her right? I took her in, housed her. What did I get in return? A murderous cousin, that's what. Just the thought of her rash action had my blood boiling. Why couldn't anyone think on their feet in a fight? It was obnoxious. Yet she wasn't the problem here was she.

Why would the two pay for a C-rank mission to be taken back in the first place, wouldn't they want a higher level ninja group to escort them if those men attacked? Maybe they really didn't know, or maybe they didn't want to bring attention to themselves?

The day continued on, full of those thoughts running through my mind over and over.

I couldn't help it, I felt like I was overlooking something. Everyone else resorted to silence and glancing around the woods for danger. We were ready for a fight, either from the trees above, or the men we guarded.

Yet, the day came and went. We had passed the border by the end of daylight, setting up camp, and with no sign of attacks, nothing. There were no discrepancies and I couldn't decide if I should be relieved or even more stressed. I settled for the latter.

Kat cooked our dinner, much to Kyo's disapproval. she gave me a dish of some sort of meat without any word, meanwhile everyone else around the circle received some comment. I still muttered a thank you, but the only reaction was an irritated glance in my direction and a sound of guttural, strained, acknowledgement.

The stress was getting to be too much to bare. I needed to speak, I needed to say something!

"Moe, how long have you been with Kyo?"

Moe looked up at me, across the fire we had lit. Everyone was so desperate to ease the strain of our situation we all leaned into hear the bit of information that would ultimately be forgotten.

"We grew up together," Moe said with a boyish grin.

I could picture Kyo, the leader in everything, strict enough to scare Moe into not speaking his mind later in life. What if he had? What if one man speaking his mind would have saved somebody's life?  
Kat sat beside him.

"And you never saw him feed a ninja," she asked.

Moe opened his mouth and closed it again. He hung his head and shook it.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could remember."

"It's alright," I muttered, it was two quiet for anyone to hear.

If they had heard it, it would have been clear my words were nothing but thoughtless lies.

We could be escorting a murderer.

"What did you say, Akira," Kat asked.

I glanced at her. She seriously hadn't heard me, but for a moment I thought she was trying to be an ass hole. I shook my head.

"I just wish we had more information."

"This again," She said angrily, her posture tense, ready for a fight.

"KAT! We could be transporting a murderer!"

"AKIRA," Satori shouted.

"WHAT," I snarled.

I glanced for just a moment towards Satori's determined face. He was making a hand sign. Kat tackled me to the ground. Above her there was an explosion of blue chakra between me and a Leaf Shinobi. He looked at the shield of chakra in surprise and leaped back.

My brother, who _had _been resting calmly by the fire shot up from his spot.

"There's more than one."

Kat and I looked at each other. I nodded my head to the right.

"One alive, please."

"FIne."


	14. Chapter 14: The Fight

Chapter FOURTEEN:

Kat and I soared to our feet as more closed in. Another ninja stood before us along with the other who had attempted his attack before. The barrier of chakra dispersed before us leaving questions that could not be answered in the heat of battle. I glanced over at Satori to see he too had a ninja in front of him. My brother, on the other hand, was guarding the chef and Moe, we were on our own.

Kat and I stared down the ninja close to us. She was the first to move, she threw a shuriken towards the man, which in turn distracted his companion.

"Earth Style: Spike Pit," I shouted.

I could feel it, the chakra building up, through my body, into my hands. I slammed my hands into the ground as hard as I could, using the chakra's powerful nature to throw aside the ground underneath the man in a precise manner so the ground would still hold several spikes of earth. The world underneath him rumbled, and collapsed in on itself. He fell with a shout that was grotesquely silenced with a sickening thump. I had landed a direct hit; he had landed on one of the spikes.

I took a deep shuttering breath, my head was dizzy, and it felt like I had just sprinted a good six miles. Yet still I ran to the edge. There the man was, body bent backwards with a spike of earth sticking through his stomach. He struggled.

He would be dead soon, but I had to make sure. I grabbed an explosive tag kunai, and threw it into his lower abdomen. The tag lit. The man screamed. Then…bam. When the smoke cleared the man had fallen off one of the earth spikes in the pit. He had fallen in two pieces. I cringed, watching just a little longer for any tricks before I turned to Kat.

She had exercised her Shadow Cloak technique. The man had a kunai through his heart as she stood behind him.

A shadow moved behind her she didn't see. Another ninja!

"Kat, behind you!"

She shoved the man to the ground, spun around just narrowly dodging a kunai through her stomach as she leapt backwards and consequently towards me. I was out of breath and exhausted, but she was still just as ready to fight as when we started.

My jutsu was too much work for such an easily dodged ability. I got lucky with her distraction, it would have been impossible to get it off with the ninja's attention drawn to me.

Kat moved a step forward, and I put a hand in front of her.

"What are you after?"

Satori joined me on my other side, breathing heavily leaving only one of us still clearly able to give it her all.

"Last one," he whispered.

We needed answers, now was the time. The ninja growled, the bright moon shinning on his headband, the fire flickering across his features. He was missing a few teeth, and his nose was sharp and hooked. He wore nothing but black, hiding all but his face. A face that could have been handsome in youth, but was now mangled with one clear, recognizable emotion: pure hate.

"Why would a Leaf ninja attack his own," I inquired.

"You're not my own," he snarled, "We've left the Leaf village."

"Rouge ninja," Kat muttered.

That was enough reason to get rid of him. I shook my head in the hopes she would catch my signal: not yet. We needed to know what was going on.

"Why are you after this man?"

"That chef of yours killed our leader with his shitty food. He tricked him into eating that crap," he said pointing an accusing finger to his target somewhere behind us.

I could hear Kat, she was retrieving a weapon. She needed to wait. I elbowed her. The man's body had a long wide shadow, it was perfect for her. She was itching to have this done with and I could practically feel it.

"How do you know it was him?"

He snarled, "I don't need to explain myself to you brats, I'll kill all of you and that chef!"

"We have one that's only knocked out," Satori whispered quickly.

Then this one was expendable. Good, that made this simple. It was three against one after all.

"Have it your way. May the _shadows_ have you," I signaled.

I reached down and threw a shuriken at the same time Kat and Satori did. I didn't have enough chakra and if I had, Kat's close proximity would be a problem if I executed my Earth Jutsu and if she, predictably, executed her shadow jutsu. Instead in the hopes of keeping Kat hidden, so the light wouldn't touch her and her body would be more hidden in the darkness I ran to block the light from the still roaring camp fire.

I didn't make it in time.

The man blocked the shuriken with his kunai in the blink of my impressed eye, then swiveled around and took a step to his right. It was just as Kat's jutsu was pulled off. She was standing there, completely incapable of getting her attack off due to the shift of the shadow.

The man gripped his kunai and delivered a hit straight to Kat's thigh before she could react.

Our reaction was incredible for a gut reaction. Kat leaped back, Satori placed a barrier between the two and I drew my sword and charged. The first was an aggressive strike directly towards the man's right side. As predicted he was forced to dodge it by jumping away from the barrier.

He had been observing us. He had known what Kat's jutsu was going to be even with the distraction which meant my only great instruments would be Kenjutsu and Taijutsu.

I followed him, sword drawn ready to attack. I saw Satori rush past me to Kat. I couldn't look at them no matter what, I had to stay focused. I was on the offensive immediately. One strike to the right to bring his kunai to block my sword, then another strike in a different direction, and then another. It went on like that for a time to give Kat some time to recover and for me to strategize.

He was meeting every single strike I made with his blade, but he was being forced to use both hands on his kunai to stop the force of my attack. The force wouldn't last long, however. After I had executed my jutsu I was still exhausted, I was working with sheer force of will. I needed to end this fight before I lost my energy.

I slashed with as much strength to his right side as I could, with the variation in strength he was forced to focus on my blade more. I pulled back to execute a low sweep kick. I dropped the sword, left heel facing the enemy, body facing away, right foot in front of the left, my right hand under my left leg, my left hand to the side of my right foot, and all in one fluid motion I kicked the man's feet straight out from under him with my left foot slamming into his ankles.

I reached for a kunai ready to lunge downward and kill the man as soon as I was on my feet. Yet he recuperated too quickly for me to make the strike. It was a Taijutsu battle, fists and feet flying until I managed to get a solid right hook off on him. As soon as it was delivered I threw a kick into the left side of his face as he leaned to the side from the previous blow.

As I moved to throw that heel into his cheekbone I reached into the pouch of weapons on my hips and grabbed three shuriken between my fingers.

The next move was going to hurt a lot, but much more for him.

Just as I went in for my final blow I realized he was being hit from the back and the front. As he was knocked around from my kicks and punches Kat had recuperated and was now performing something I couldn't see to the man's back. His shoulders were rolled back, his eyes opened wide as Kat struck him with her hands from behind.

I had my window of opportunity. I threw my fist of shuriken into the man's forehead.

I felt the bites of the blade between my fingers, and retracted my hold so as not to tear my hand apart. Kat stopped her attack. She stepped back and the man fell.

He was groaning on the ground, not angry, just incoherent babbling. Satori approached, grabbed his staff with both hands and slammed it onto one of the shuriken still in his head.

He was very, very dead.


	15. Chapter 15: The Interrogation

Chapter FIFTEEN:

We all looked haggard. We stared at the body, our shoulders bouncing with our breaths. All I wanted to do was fall on the ground and take a good nap. I didn't care, for the first time, about the body I had dealt with. I was far too exhausted for emotions.

I glanced up towards my teammates, just as Kat met my eyes. Something was different. Her grey eyes were now surrounded in a very visible crisscross of veins.

"I can see your chakra," she breathed.

"What do you mean?"

"Your chakra, I can see it."

It was so familiar. I gasped at my own realization, "The Byakugan!"

Kat looked surprised herself. My mother had told me that her mom had been a member of the Hyuga before marrying my uncle, but I never thought about Kat having the Byakugan or it activating in the middle of a battle. Kat's expression changed from one of surprise to that of slight annoyance.

"Of course it activates when I'm not training," she complained.

I smiled, "So when that man was being attacked you were attacking his chakra network?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she said with a shrug, "I could just see everything so…clearly."

I turned to Satori, "And what about you, what was that shield?"

"It's a kekkai genkai," he said, "I've had it since I was born."

He had been on the streets, he had been an orphan, but if he had a kekka genkai he should have known who his parents could be. Oh well, what mattered was that he had it, it was a new weapon on our team along with the Byakugan. Now, we needed to get back to the mission at hand. We still had no idea if we were escorting a man who had accidentally killed someone or purposefully killed someone.

"Where's the unconscious guy," I asked.

Satori pointed over to where he had been standing before the fight. So he had been the one to be merciful enough to not kill someone. And there I had been complaining about Kat killing someone in the heat of battle. It was hard to still have that control over a fight when it started. Still, if I had used more logic in my fight I could have hit the man who had attacked me with the pommel of my sword and knocked him out, instead I had used an incredible amount of chakra just to eliminate him when I could have used much less energy for a better outcome. I'd have to keep that in mind the next time we fought someone.

Satori, Kat, Moe, Kyo, and my brother all approached the unconscious man. Satori made sure he was still breathing and nodded up at us. My brother looked at all of us in turn, and made some sort of grunt that could have almost been understood as approval.

We set up our interrogation after that. We hadn't grabbed any rope for the event s we were forced to use trip line wire, which would hurt WAY more if he decided he wanted to get out of his bonds. We tied his wrists, and his feet, then my brother very bluntly that we weren't going to be a direct part of the interrogation.

"It's violent," he stated.

Kat and I spluttered gesturing franticly to the surrounding area, filled with a total of three dead bodies we had dealt with, and the single dead body that my brother had dealt with.

"It's a different violence," he replied coldly.

I was sure Kat and I could have argued the point until the sun was back in the sky, but we were too worn out for it. We did as my brother asked and moved the bodies out of the clearing just in case someone came upon them. After that we grabbed Kyo and Moe. Satori and Kat were on duty to make sure they watched every second of the interrogation, and hold them if they tried to leave. I was the one holding the man up.

I was nervous. I'll give you that. The thought of my brother beating a man for information wasn't the most pleasant thing to think about. Still, it was irrefutable that two stories from two different sources could be useful for finding the truth.

The man woke up at the perfect time as we all surrounded him. It was a small blessing not to have to wait for him to regain his senses for longer than we had to.

Satori had given him a rather hard hit to the head with his staff. Hard enough, in fact, that the first thing the man did was vomit on his own body. It was awful and disgusting naturally, but when did being a ninja ever encompass anything pretty and delightful.

We waited for a while for the man to understand where he was, who he was, and what was going on, but by that time my brother had pulled out his kunai and was threateningly spinning it around his finger. Moe had already tried to escape politely twice. This wasn't going to be pretty.

The man groaned and finally managed a jumble of words that sounded something like a vulgar comment towards us.

"Speak up, we have questions," my brother said.

The man began to try and struggle against his bonds. I held him steady, as at first he was content to try and move his wrists, and then, as if the action was too much, he tried to fall out of my grasp. He weighed twice my weight and I can tell you now holding him up was the most strenuous nauseating thing I had to do that night. He smelled awful, he felt awful, and the whole situation was awful.

My brother tucked his kunai under the man's chin and lifted his face.

"Why are you after this chef," he asked, his voice low and intimidating.

The man growled, his head wobbling from side to side, still dizzy from the hit.

"I…the man…he…it's…I'm not talking."

I braced myself as my brother's fist slammed into the man's stomach. I was lucky he didn't vomit again.

"Let's try that again. All of your friends are dead, you can get out of here, and all you need to tell me is a few things. Why make this difficult?"

The first time my brother said it, it was smooth and frightening. The few times afterwards he had to say it, because the man couldn't understand him, he just sounded irritated.

"I…Kyo…he…killed him!"

Kyo lunged forward with a murderous wrath, but Kat was there. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and pulled him back. I didn't have to see her hand to know a kunai rested behind the chef in fingers all too willing for blood.

"If you don't stop trying to kill our witness I will hurt you," she hissed.

"I'm silencing his lies," Kyo said in a huff.

"You're very committed to silencing the witness for an _innocent _man."

Her words struck home and Kyo was silent, features still tense, fists still clenched.

"Did he mean to do it?"

Moe cleared his throat, "Now wait a moment, my master would never-"

"Quiet," Satori commanded.

Little meek Moe closed his mouth.

"Yes," the man yelled, "Yes! He did it!"

"What did your leader look like?"

"What kind of…shit question," the man started.

My brother punctuated his inquiry with a fist. The man was starting to break, "Alright, he, he had brown hair, long brown hair, green eyes. His name was…his name was Nozamu."

Moe snapped his fingers happily, "I know who you're talking about, that man came to the restaurant. We fed him our best dish."

Kyo gave Moe an icy glare. He had done it on purpose, he had to.

"I fed him, but he didn't die," Kyo said angrily, "He left."

"Oh he died," the man I held said.

His head was dancing across his neck, left and right. His feet and knees were swaying softly as well. He was going to fall on me again. I could feel it.

"He died from your food. I saw it with my own eyes."

"Either way," I bluffed, "We have a dead man, rouge ninja, and food that can kill. I say we kill both of them."

"No," the three shouted.

"It was an accident," Kyo cried, "I swear, all I wanted was to cook for the people. I never meant to harm anyone."

"Then why didn't you revise your cooking skills when it so clearly hurt people, Moe said it himself, people have been hurt by your food before, why didn't you change it."

"Because my food is good, no matter what you say," he cried.

"He's in permanent denial," Moe whispered, as if his quiet voice in the circle of open ears would hide his true thoughts from a man standing directly beside him, "He can't take visible criticism. You've seen it!"

"He's killing people," Kat stated, "Either way he's done for, accident of no."

"Was there any poison in the food, do you know," my brother asked.

The man in my arms looked at Kyo. I could tell he was smiling by the tone in his voice.

"Yes, lots of poison."

Great, the man could be lying. He wanted revenge after all.

"I say we don't have the authority on this. Let's escort all of them to the Tekumi village and have them decide, they're not our problem. We just need to get them there," I surmised.

"Does the Tekumi village even have a prison," Kat asked, "They're just a manufacturing town."

"Yes," Kyo yelled, "Yes, they have a prison, they'll know, they'll know it was an accident."

The group was quiet. This was a stalemate, but we shouldn't get involved in another places affairs this deeply. Taking justice into our own hands could be viewed as a violent crime by this village. It was better just to bring him in.

I looked at my brother around the man's body. My brother nodded.

"Get the trip line."


	16. Chapter 16: Arrival

Chapter SIXTEEN:

We entered Takumi village with three men in handcuffs and no serious proof on any of them. At first I had felt sure about my decision and the rest of my squad mates seemed to agree, but right after I had said it my brother had pulled me aside.

He gave me a speech about a ninja's job being to find and keep peace, not look for a way to shove the burden onto others. We argued a bit, but it was pointless. He had more experience, and he was right. I wished we had, had the ability to tell who was right and who was wrong.

Kiba used to talk about being able to sniff lies on people when we were kids. I always thought he was bull shitting me, but he always managed to tell when I was telling the truth or not. Not that I lied to him about anything important, just, as a kid, I had always thought if I created a story that stretched the truth and it got a few laughs then there should be no worries if it was a lie or not. Kiba always viewed it like a game. I would tell a story and he would sniff the air and say something ridiculous like: "I smell a fake." It managed to get me out of my lying habits pretty quick when he explained it to me. He could smell it when someone sweat more than they usually did, he could see when someone was becoming flustered even in the slightest.

I wondered what he would do if he took my place.

I could easily see it being the same outcome, both of them being worried, both of them being sweaty and flustered. I bet the smell of vomit would have been Kiba's undoing. Yet he probably would have been more effective than me at sorting out the truth.

To this day I still regret not being able to find it out for myself, but seeing who was lying, and who was telling the truth was a skill someone acquired after years and years of being on either side of it. It wasn't some innate knowledge for me. Sometimes I wonder if my brother caught who was lying and who was telling the truth and held his tongue just to see if we could sort it out, but that seems too irresponsible of him for me to even consider.

Takumi village, however, wasn't the most exciting place in the world. I had imagined great smiths wandering about with their finest masterpieces slung over their shoulder. They would see me and crouch down to my height to whisper the arts of crafting the perfect blade.

Instead we were met with small busy shops in efficient but non-ornate structures.

No one seemed to care about us as we went along our way among the common rabble of the day. They were busy manufacturing. However, you could see the toll of villages creating their own shops for weapons; every other place seemed to be shut down. The shops that were not closed seemed to hold all the people who could have greeted us upon our entry.

Don't get me wrong here, I hadn't expected a big parade as we stepped into the town, but this had been Kyo's home village…I had assumed someone would care we were escorting him in bonds. No one seemed to even look in our direction. The only person who did look had been a man sweeping outside a shop he glanced at us, glanced at Kyo and made an approving harrumph under his breath. I tried to ask him for directions to someone who could take the men off our hands but he wasn't paying attention to us after that.

"Hey, Kyo," Kat began, "Where are we taking you?"

Kyo seemed eager, strangely, to lead us straight to a smiting area outside of a large stone house. A man was working on a workbench besides his forge. His hand, glowing with blue chakra, was running back and forth over a blade still red hot.

"Him," Kyo exclaimed.

The man looked up to greet us. He was a man who built swords often, the incredible heat from the sword didn't seem to bother him, and his patient skilled eyes met our forms with interest.

"You'll pardon me if I don't stand. This is a very serious step in the process."

He ran his hand over the blade, the blue chakra seemingly dripping into the blades metal.

"Chakra blades, very difficult to make."

"Chakra blades," I asked.

He glanced up towards me, but all he ended up seeing was the sheath on my hip. He gazed back at his work and finally set it aside after a few more moments of the odd behavior.

"May I," he asked holding out a hand towards me.

Normally I would have made a fool out of myself and given him my hand, but his eyes kept flickering towards my blade. I unsheathed it and placed my work within his worn hand.

"Good make," he said staring into the grain on the blade, "Great make. You don't have the best steel though, and it could be better if you made it a chakra blade. I can give you some things to make a great sword if you wish. For a decent price of course."

I was about to exclaim with absolute joy that I would love that more than eating for a week, which would no doubt have been the sacrifice, but my brother cleared his throat and ruined the moment.

"This man, Kyo, do you know him."

The smith squinted, staring into Kyo's face. When comprehension dawned on his features so did laughter in large booms.

"You've already bound him? We knew he would get into trouble with his cooking. We were planning on shoving him in jail anyways when he got back. He left without are permission anyways. Teach him a lesson about going on the way he does, you know?"

He laughed again, and Kyo's features blanched. Either way he was going to be escorted behind bars.

"He might have killed a leader of rouge ninja on accident, or on purpose, we don't know which story is true."

He looked at us, seemingly seeing us as serious human beings for the first time, "A killer you say? Well I know he's a bad cook, but that bad? We can take him off your hands, of course. We'll need any information you received on your mission, but we can deal with it from here."

"Good," Kat breathed, "I'm tired of this cook."

"Is he almost as bad as instant ramen," I teased.

She glared at me, "I will kill you."

"But what about this rouge ninja," the smith asked my brother, "Don't your people want to deal with that?"

The rogue ninja hadn't been doing well, whatever brain damage Satori had caused seemed to be a serious problem for him in the day to day. He had tripped multiple times, and forgotten where he was twice in that day. He'd be lucky if he remembered his name into the next week and we all knew it.

"We thought you might want him for questioning, once that's done someone from the Leaf will have to deal with him, yes."

The smith nodded grimly. After the little conversation he led us to the prison itself where the men were taken out of our hands. He asked us to stay a night and we all agreed. It had been a long journey and we held little want for the return trip home to commence so quickly.


	17. Chapter 17: A Mission Completed!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

The next day we didn't stick around. We delivered our reports to the jail for some sort of review of the men's actions only to find out the rouge ninja had actually died in his cell the night before.

I couldn't say I was particularly upset, in fact if anything I felt apathetic towards the situation, but before we left we saw Moe. He was huddled up into a ball; his clothes were covered in dirt. He was rocking back and forth letting loose great loud awful sobs.

I stopped before him and watched through the bars.

His tears, his breaths, were so familiar. I realized very suddenly that it was the exact way I had cried when losing my father and mother. He gasped and rocked and let out awful howls, unaware of the world around him.

I had stolen his life because I had not been able to decipher the truth.

I took a deep breath. My team walked past me one step in front of the other. They glanced but didn't seem to see. I remained, alone, etching the memory into my very heart. I decided I would never let another soul down like I had let down Moe and Kyo _ever again._

The heartbroken man looked up at me; his bright eyes watched me with an aegis of tears that dripped down his face creating red irritated skin.

"GET OUT," he roared.

I jumped at the noise, stepping back, but as soon as the words had charged out of his lips he fell back into a heap of self-pity writhing on the floor as if some unseen force was burning him.

The sounds he made…the sounds of a broken human being…there's nothing like it.

Kat was the one who realized I was gone. She jogged back. Her eyes didn't take in the man. She didn't react like I had wished. I almost pointed him out, I almost said I felt like I had single handedly murdered his hopes and dreams, I almost said my heart felt like a boulder in my chest. Instead I let her take me away.

The only thing regarding training that I managed to obtain was on the way out of the town. There was a place selling scrolls on sword craftsmanship. It was a surprising place indeed considering how the villagers seemed to hate getting rid of their secrets. I assumed the place really only sold to the people in the town, but I thought if I could give the man enough money I could get it. I begged my brother to help me purchase it. He refused, obviously.

My team kept moving for the second time. Yet I stayed. I looked at that scroll for a long time and finally traded him my very own sword, my best work, for that single scroll.

I cannot begin to describe to you the deep pain of a return trip after a mission you aren't satisfied with. They never tell you about it in class. There is an uneasy silence of exhaustion and a lingering mist of depression. It is a long quiet time to ponder your actions, reflecting upon them so much that the stress of your new self-doubt will give birth to headaches that do not leave you for days. In fact the headaches we ninja endure seem to be consistent and never ending, our experiences dogging our every action.

For me that mission was the first of many to make me understand just how cruel people can be to each other, and just how little you can stop it sometimes. Still, I wouldn't be a good human being if I didn't try to help others.

When I finally saw Konoha I saw it for what it was: Home sweet home, and a nice bed somewhere. However, as soon as I began walking past the group and to my house my brother stopped me with a hand on my chest.

"We still have work to do."

I wanted to smack him in the face.

"More missions," I asked eyes wide.

"Yes," he said plainly, "We'll turn in our reports and start more D-rank missions."

Satori, Kat and I all groaned.

"I'm doing this for a reason. You three go off and train. I want an hour of training at least between these missions."

The sun was setting in the sky; we only had a few hours before night, so without another word of complaint we started off to our training grounds. The training this time was different however, instead of regular training with kunai aim, kenjutsu and regular jutsu, my teammates began practicing with the unique abilities they possessed. Meanwhile I sat down with that scroll.

You'd think being surrounded by a girl with Byakugan and a boy with a shield kekkai genkai you'd be a bit depressed with your sorry ass reading a book, but I was excited.

Still, the hell was just beginning. The Chūnin Exams were coming…


End file.
